JACK IS OURS

We've been approached by fellow parents/nannies numerous times with ordinary questions such as, "How old is your son?" or "What's his name?" or "Where did he get those cool kicks?" - you know, whatever breaks the ice as Jack plays with their kid or charge. But today we had a winner when a white woman carrying a black little boy sat down next to us at the diner where we were eating breakfast and asked, "Is he yours?" She then asked the appropriate "How old is he?" question after which she told us the boy she was holding was 16 months, but then said his birthday was in January. Um, that makes your kid (or charge) 15 months, not 16, last time I checked. Now we thought about her weird question our whole walk home - either she couldn't really see Adrian and she thought I was a nanny or she had just stolen her kid and wanted to make sure the diner was a safe place for racially non-matching parent/kid combos or she was just a weirdo or she thought I was a nanny who breakfasts with her charge and a random male adult. To give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she gets asked that all the time (which would be understandable, but we didn't ask) and she feels that's the most appropriate first question when befriending other parents. Who knows? But yes, Jack is ours through and through, even if he doesn't look like either of us.